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Friday, September 12, 2014

Former priest found guilty on 24 sex charges involving Inuit children

Catholic priest Eric Dejaeger is escorted by police outside an Iqaluit, Nunavut courtroom Jan. 20, 2011 after his first appearance for six child sexual abuse charges in Igloolik dating back to the 1970s. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Windeyer)

The Canadian Press

IQALUIT, Nunavut -- A Nunavut judge has found a former Roman Catholic priest guilty of 24 of the more than 70 sex-related charges he faced involving Inuit children more than 30 years ago.

Defrocked Oblate priest Eric Dejaeger had already pleaded guilty to eight counts of sexual assault when his trial began in December.

In his written decision, Justice Robert Kilpatrick noted that the time that had passed between when the assaults were alleged to have happened and the trial weakened the case.

"Judges and juries do not possess divine insight into the soul of witnesses who testify in a legal proceeding. Decisions must be made on the basis of evidence alone, not intuition or guesswork," Kilpatrick wrote.

"The quantity and quality of the evidence available to the court in this case has been substantially weakened by the passage of time. The reliability of the Crown's evidence on many counts is suspect. This is reflected by the results of this trial."